1. Area of the Art
The current invention concerns document security and more particularly a paper shredder with a disposable waste container.
2. Description of the Background of the Invention
In spite of supposedly becoming a “paperless society” paper shredders remain an important item for ensuring security. In fact, the widespread use of the Internet to conduct all manner of business and financial affairs makes the inadvertent disclosure of even a single account number potentially disastrous. Because all manner of receipts and bills continue to disclose complete account numbers, it is imperative that one destroy this information prior to discarding the documents. The paper shredder remains the most effective way of ensuring that discarded documents do not reveal any personal information.
Although paper shredders have “evolved” quite a bit over the last few decades, the general details of their operation have remained fairly consistent. In the most common type of paper shredder, documents to be destroyed are fed into a slot or input chute. Within the shredder a series of rotating cutting blades are spaced along a drive shaft. The inserted document meets these blades and is cut into innumerable pieces which fall from the shredding mechanism and into a waste storage container or bin. The blades are spaced apart along a length that is at least as long as the width of the widest document to be shredded. Normally this is at least 8½ inches so that the shredded paper exits the mechanism along a path that is at least 8½ inches long although some desktop shredders designed for bi-fold paper can have a shredding mechanism less than 8½ inches long. In any case, the storage container must have a minimum dimension of at least the length of the shredding mechanism with an opening to admit the shredded paper fragments of at least this length. Generally, the container is essentially open-topped to ensure that all the shredded fragments fall into the contained; with such a large opening, it is easy to spill fragments during the process of emptying or replacing the storage container. This makes the emptying or replacement process cumbersome and messy. Most often, the open-topped storage container is removed from the shredder and dumped into a waste basket. This often results in a blizzard of paper fragments. Some mess can be avoided by dumping the container into a larger building trash bin, but this requires taking the container out of the office to the trash bin location. An alternative strategy is to empty the waste storage container into a disposable (plastic) trash bag which can more readily be carried to the trash bin. However, it turns out to be difficult to achieve the transfer of paper fragments from the waste container to the trash bag without spreading paper fragments all over the place.
Most modern paper shredders have a number of automatic sensors and controls. An input sensor detects the presence of documents in the input slot and starts the shredder motor. The motor continues to operate for some seconds after documents are no longer present at the input to allow the paper fragments to clear the mechanism and fall into the storage bin. Other sensors stop the motor if it becomes overloaded or overheated. Finally, a “bin full” sensor stops the motor when the storage bin becomes full. If shredding were to continue with the bin full, the shredded fragments could no longer fall freely from the shredder mechanism. Instead the mechanism would become clogged and the motor would overheat.